Life on the Vine

It's Christmas Market time in Germany.  Last year I shared photos and information from visits to the Weihnachtsmarkts (as they're known here) in Stuttgart and Dresden .  The first market we visited this year is the one in Esslingen, which is not far from Stuttgart.  It is a great town with lots of personality.  I had been to the outskirts of the town before because we take the truck to a Toyota dealership in Esslingen but I'd never been in the city center.  Esslingen is located on the Neckar River and one of the first things I noticed while driving into town are the locks and dams on the river.  The town has a lot of personality, great buildings and is just enjoyable to walk around.    Esslingen's market has a Middle Ages theme featuring booths with artisans and crafts harkening back centuries.  We didn't bring a camera so Tom took pictures with his iPhone.  Here are some of our pictures. Entry to the Christmas Market Enjoying first cup of Glühwein   E

Thanksgiving night we got our first bonafide snowfall with another dusting of snow last night.  It is a beautiful sunny Saturday so Tom suggested I go for a walk and capture some pictures of our first snow. In keeping with the summer walk pictures I posted a couple months ago, I did go for a walk in October and got some pictures of the fall colors but I never got those posted.  I figured I'd post the fall and winter pictures together to show the changing of the seasons in a month's time.  I tried to select ones taken in the same general locations.  Enjoy! Pedestrian bridge near our house Same bridge just standing on the opposite side This field below is where some of the flower fields were this summer. There is a hill to the side where a couple kids were sledding. In October there were still a lot of vegetable stands. Looking back towards cart with the squash Just down the road Crossing Autobahn 8 - Looking towards Munich Foot bridge that crosses A8

Okay...time to get to the REAL reason we went to Scotland - SCOTCH (aka single malt whisky). The boys (Tom and Phil) had been talking off and on about making a scotch run to Scotland and indulging in Scotland's finest libation.  I jumped in pretty early expressing my desire to visit Scotland too and closed the deal by dangling out the offer to be the designated driver.  During the summer our plans began to take shape.  We tried to lure my father-in-law into making the trip, who alas could not be tempted to cross the big watery pond of the Atlantic Ocean, and also invited along a girlfriend for me to pal around with, who as you know from my earlier post broke her ankle just weeks before the trip.  But, before knowing all of that, Tom figured that the expense of hotel rooms for everyone (possibly 5 adults, only two of whom would be sleeping together), plus a rental vehicle, plus meals, could be pretty steep.  So he tossed out the idea of getting a motor home.  This way we would h